“I would probably have to say that reading fiction those stories fill the space that other people might use religious stories for. The bulk of what I know about human life Ive gotten from novels. A...”

“Quite a metaphor. The person in the most pain wins. Does that mean I get a Blue Ribbon?”

“Laurie herself was more focused on the years when her kids were little, when she felt so necessary and purposeful, a battery all charged up with love. Every day she used it up and every night it go...”

“When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.”

“I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.”

“Eve still marveled on a daily basis at the speed with which her own life had changed. A year ago, she'd been lost and flailing, and now she was found. She wanted to call it a miracle, but it was si...”

“My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.”

“Just like real sex, the touching was good, but there came a point in time when a woman needed to be filled - deeply.”

“Private moments held not a candle to coitus, not even the expensive kind of candle that made the whole room smell of far off seasons.”

“Never Give up, never surrender.”

“Several Terminal Policy readers got together to tell Raker jokes: - Raker CAN piss into the wind. - Raker donates a lot of blood to the Red Cross -- just never his own. - Superman wears Raker paj...”

“There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.”